Medicare scam calls: how to tell, what to say, and what to do next

If someone calls saying they’re from Medicare and you didn’t call Medicare first, treat it as a scam. Hang up, and if you want to double-check, call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) yourself.

Medicare almost never calls first. Medicare.gov says Medicare (or someone representing it) will only call and ask for personal information in very limited situations, like an agent returning your call after you’ve joined a plan, reported fraud or left a message, and that it will never call you to sell you anything. If you picked up and read out your number already, skip to what to do now. You’re not alone in this mistake, and there are clear steps you should promptly take.

Does Medicare call you?

Almost never, and not out of the blue. The examples Medicare.gov gives all start with you:

• you joined a plan and the agent is calling back
• you reported fraud and someone is following up
• you left Medicare a message

The FCC reports that you will usually get a written statement in the mail before you get a phone call from a government agency.

Medicare’s real open enrollment contact is paper. It mails the “Medicare & You” handbook to every Medicare household in late September, or emails a link if you chose the electronic version in your Medicare.gov account. Nobody follows up by phone to walk you through it, and nothing in it asks you to read your number back to anyone.

Where some people get stuck is that legitimate insurance companies do sell Medicare Advantage and drug plans during open enrollment, which runs October 15 to December 7, so the thought “maybe this is a real broker” is reasonable. But Medicare’s own marketing rules state: people representing Medicare plans aren’t allowed to call you unless you’re already a member or you’ve given them permission to contact you. They don’t need your personal information to give you a quote, and they can never pressure you with lines like “you have to join this plan or you won’t have coverage next year.”

So my rule is simple: if I didn’t ask for the call, I hang up. The chance that an unexpected “Medicare” call is legitimate is tiny, and the cost of guessing wrong is your Medicare number or your Social Security number.

The same rule applies to the number itself. Medicare.gov’s own guidance is to give it only to health care providers, your insurers or health plans, or people you trust who work with Medicare, like a counselor at your state’s SHIP program, and never to anyone who reached out to you first. A voice you didn’t call doesn’t make the list.

If you’d rather talk plans through with a real person, place the call yourself to 1-800-MEDICARE or to a plan’s number from its official website or your own plan card.

What a Medicare scam call sounds like

The FCC shared two recordings of how these calls open. One: “Hi, this is Casey. I’m a Medicare advisor calling on a recorded line. How are you today?” The other: “This is Shelly in the Medicare enrollment center, on a recorded line, and I see here in the past you inquired about your Medicare supplement coverage. Can you hear me OK?”

Both are warm and unhurried, with a little official polish. The ask for your Medicare or Social Security number comes after the pleasantries, once hanging up would feel rude.

Many begin as recordings, but will pass you off to a real human as soon as you begin to engage. If you engage at all, they will often bombard you with follow-up calls, but remember that persistence doesn’t mean legitimacy.

The hook changes from call to call, but the pressure doesn’t.

• A “new” card. Plastic, with a chip, black and white, or “it’s a new year so you need a new one.” Senior Medicare Patrol says Medicare last changed the card in 2018 and has no plan to change it again. Real cards are paper and free, and Medicare won’t call you to verify yours.
• Something free. A “Medicare-approved” back or knee brace, in exchange for your number. As the FTC states, if your doctor wants you to have equipment, they’ll talk with you about it at an appointment.
• A threat. Your coverage will be canceled unless you confirm your details today. The FCC’s instruction for anyone who threatens to cancel your health benefits: hang up, immediately.
• A plan you “need.” You’re pre-approved, or you’ll have no coverage next year. Medicare’s rules ban plan agents from that kind of pressure.

What they share is urgency. Something good is about to vanish, or something bad is about to happen, unless you read out a number right now. Medicare is not in the business of making you feel rushed. Real deadlines exist, but they come in the mail with plenty of notice. A countdown on a call is a strong sign it’s a scam.

Two more things to keep in mind:

• The number on your screen proves nothing, because caller ID can be faked to show “Medicare,” a government office, a local number, or a broker you’d expect to hear from.
• The person on the other side is good at this. This is their job. They sound kind because kindness works, but don’t let your natural instinct to return that kindness get you trapped.

If you did get a new Medicare card this year

In March and April 2026, some people received new Medicare cards with new numbers, by mail, with a letter explaining why. That’s how a real card change arrives: in an envelope, not in a call asking you to read the old number aloud. If you’re not sure a piece of Medicare mail is real, call 1-800-MEDICARE and ask.

Why these calls work on careful people

I’ve seen countless reports of these calls, and the people who get caught aren’t careless. The scam borrows its power from how Medicare itself works.

You deal with enrollment once a year, so there’s no routine to measure the call against. The choice matters, and nobody wants to miss a window. The whole thing is confusing. So when a patient, friendly voice offers to sort it out for you, it’s appealing.

Then there’s Medicare’s reputation as a government program. It feels wrong to hang up on an IRS agent or a police officer mid-sentence, so it feels wrong to do it to “Medicare.” Put all of that together and the natural reaction to one of these calls is to stand in line and cooperate. The callers count on exactly that.

What to say, then hang up

You don’t have to argue, and you don’t have to work out whether this particular caller is real. One line, then hang up the moment you finish it:

Don’t wait for a reply. That’s the part that matters most. These callers are trained to keep you on the line and to explain away the fact that they’re calling. Keep it polite and quick, then go. If you’d rather hang up without a word, that’s fine too. The FCC’s advice is simply to hang up immediately.

If anything about the call nags at you afterward, check it on your own terms. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or the number on your plan card or a statement. Never use a number the caller gave you, and don’t call back the number that called.

If you already gave your Medicare number

First, don’t spend energy on worry or shame; it won’t improve the situation. The people who run these calls refine their scripts all day, every day, and you’re one of a great many people this has happened to. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Then take these steps:

1. If you paid anything, or gave a card or bank account number, start with whoever holds the money, right away. For a credit or debit card, call the number on the back of the card and ask to reverse the charge. For a bank transfer, call your bank. For a gift card or a payment app, contact that company.
2. Call 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). Medicare.gov says to call if you think someone else is using your Medicare number. Tell them what happened and what you shared.
3. If you gave your Social Security number, go to IdentityTheft.gov if it’s already been misused, or IdentityTheft.gov/databreach if you’re not sure yet. The FTC walks you through either case.
4. Keep an eye on your statements. Medicare.gov asks everyone to compare the dates and services on their statements against their own calendar, and to create a Medicare.gov account to see Original Medicare claims as soon as they’re processed. If you have a Medicare Advantage or drug plan, read that plan’s statements too. Anything you didn’t get, such as a visit or a piece of equipment, is worth a call to your doctor’s office or plan.
5. If you think you were switched into a plan you didn’t choose, call 1-800-MEDICARE and explain. Medicare.gov says its representatives can help with options for making changes throughout the year when a plan choice was based on misleading information.

Expect more calls for a while. Once you’ve engaged with one of these callers, even briefly, you’ve shown them there’s a real person at this number, and more calls tend to follow. Use the same line, and the same swift hang-up.

How to stop Medicare scam calls

Honest answer: you probably can’t make them stop entirely, but you can make them quieter. Two things drive the volume. It’s open enrollment season, and if you’ve ever stayed on the line with one of these callers, that number is worth more to them now.

• Send unknown numbers to voicemail. On an iPhone, go to Settings, then Apps, then Phone, then Screen Unknown Callers, and choose Silence. Calls from numbers not in your contacts are silenced and sent to voicemail, where a real caller can leave a message. Check whether your phone has a similar setting if it isn’t an iPhone. Before you turn it on, save your doctors, pharmacy and family as contacts, so their calls still ring.
• Ask your phone company what it can block. The FCC suggests talking to your carrier about call blocking tools and checking what your phone can do on its own.
• Register with the Do Not Call list. It’s free at donotcall.gov or 1-888-382-1222, calling from the number you want to register. The FCC describes it as a list that legitimate telemarketers agree not to call. It won’t stop a scammer, and it won’t tell you whether a given caller is real, but it does thin out the legitimate sales calls so the rest stand out.
• Don’t press anything, and don’t call back. The FTC says don’t press a number, which can lead to more robocalls, and don’t call back. You’ll see advice online to answer and waste the caller’s time until they give up. I’d skip it. Every call you take tells them the number is live.

If your mom, dad, or another loved one got the call

Maybe she mentioned a strange call over dinner. Maybe he already read his number to someone and feels sick about it. However it went, leave out the “how could you.” Everyone is susceptible to these calls. Very smart people are taken in by them all the time, because the people running them do this professionally.

What helps is an open conversation. Shame makes people hide the next call, and the next call is the one you want to hear about. Ask what the caller said. Offer to sit with them through the steps above if they want help, and let them make the calls. Then agree on the line you’ll both use next time, as a thing the two of you are doing together, not a rule you’re handing down. You can share something like: “These scam calls are getting good. Can we pick what we’ll both say next time one comes in for either of us?”

The catch with that line, and with every tip on this page, is that reading it once isn’t the same as having it ready. The scammer has rehearsed their script. Your parent has to respond with no warning and a friendly voice in their ear. Saying it out loud a few times before the phone rings, while nothing is at stake, makes it familiar, and familiar is what you want in the moment. That’s the idea behind ScamPrep: practice calls and messages that feel like the real thing, with friendly coaching after a slip. You invite, they opt in. How it works.

How to report a Medicare scam call

Reporting takes a few minutes, and it’s worth doing even if nothing was lost. You can report the call to any of these:

• Medicare: 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227)
• HHS Office of Inspector General: online at oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud, or by phone at 1-800-HHS-TIPS (1-800-447-8477)
• Senior Medicare Patrol: 877-808-2468, which helps people with Medicare and their families with suspected fraud and billing errors
• Medicare Advantage or drug plan fraud: the Investigations Medicare Drug Integrity Contractor (I-MEDIC) at 1-877-7SAFERX (1-877-772-3379)
• The scam call itself: the FTC, at ReportFraud.ftc.gov